An attorney with the San Benito County Counsel’s office is
asking a judge to issue a gag order to prevent a local defense
attorney from talking to the press about possible evidence
tampering in a criminal case.
Deputy County Counsel Darren Bogie is arguing in court that San
Benito County Superior Court Judge Steven Sanders should slap a gag
order on defense attorney Arthur Cantu.
An attorney with the San Benito County Counsel’s office is asking a judge to issue a gag order to prevent a local defense attorney from talking to the press about possible evidence tampering in a criminal case.
Deputy County Counsel Darren Bogie is arguing in court that San Benito County Superior Court Judge Steven Sanders should slap a gag order on defense attorney Arthur Cantu.
Bogie said the motion is not intended to restrict the rights of the press to information, but to stop Cantu from talking publicly about the Albert Solorio case.
“We are not trying to restrict the public’s right to know. What we are trying to do is insure that if Cantu is making allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in this case, that he is making them on the basis of fact and going through the proper procedure of having them heard,” Bogie said.
He said the county counsel’s office brought the motion to help put the allegations of possible misconduct to rest.
“So either the DA’s office can be cleared or the public can be assured of a fair trial,” Bogie said.
Cantu said the motion, which will be heard this morning, is an obvious attempt to save the District Attorney’s office from embarrassment over its mishandling of the case.
“To try and restrain the people from hearing what goes on in the courtroom goes against everything this country stands for. This is an affront to our constitution,” Cantu said. “The whole idea of freedom of the press and the public’s right to know is so that the public can see how our government is behaving and what’s going on in the courtroom.”
Cantu said if attorneys do not speak out about what goes on in the courtroom when they see something they believe is wrong then the public will never be able to take action to correct it.
“The average person in this county who has to commute to work, does not have time to sit in the courtroom every day,” he said.
Bogie said he has no problem with the public being informed about what goes on in the courtroom, but he wants to be sure Cantu’s apparent allegations of prosecutorial misconduct are based on fact and are not just some trumped up accusations.
On Aug. 26, Cantu asked the court to have members of the district attorney’s office removed from the prosecution of Solorio’s assault because he suspects members of the Hollister Police Department – possibly with the knowledge of a prosecutor within the District Attorney’s Office – withheld a video tape that recorded part of an alleged July 1, 2002 struggle between his client, Solorio, and Sgt. Greg Thul.
District Attorney John Sarsfield said his office has not been and is not currently involved in any kind of effort to tamper with or conceal evidence.
The issue, which Cantu brought up in court on several occasions, ultimately led to Deputy District Attorney Stephen Wagner being removed from the case by Sanders.
The judge removed Wagner from the case because Cantu convinced the court Wagner might be called as a witness to testify in the Solorio case.
Under current judicial practices, an attorney cannot be both a witness and a prosecutor or defense attorney in the same trial. That is the same reasoning the District Attorney’s office used to get Public Defender Greg LaForge removed from a felony case just a few weeks earlier.
Some of Cantu’s claims that the videotape in question was being withheld from him stem from Wagner’s own statements in court back on May 27.
When Cantu told the court he was having difficulties getting the tape from prosecutors, Wagner reportedly said in court that his office did not have the tape and that apparently a neighbor picked up a video camera and recorded a portion of the incident between Thul and Solorio.
“My question is, if his office didn’t have or know about the tape, then how does Wagner know it was taken by a neighbor or other details about the tape when the first police report about the tape was not written until nearly a full month after he made those statements in court?” Cantu asked.
Wagner could not be reached for comment on the tape or his alleged prior knowledge of its existence.
Solorio was arrested July 1, 2002 following an alleged struggle with Thul that sent both men through a plate glass window.
The incident happened when Thul was answering a domestic dispute call at an apartment near the intersection of Sunnyslope and Valley View roads.
Police said Thul entered the downstairs apartment and talked to a distraught woman, believing the immediate danger was over.
However, while Thul was trying to find out what happened, Solorio allegedly came out from a back room and physically confronted him, police said.
The two men reportedly struggled for a few minutes as their fight carried both men toward a large window.
Cantu also said police are trying to use his client as a scapegoat for its lack of diligence by claiming Solorio escaped from custody after he was arrested and taken to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center for treatment.
